Thing 9: In the Wiki World

I did it! I conquered the wiki! Once I figured out that I had to ask permission to play in the sandbox (I forgot about that important step), then it was pretty easy. I had fun making my page; I got all of my images from Google Images. I'm ready to branch out into other image sites (I'm excited about exploring Flickr!) because I abuse this one a bit too much. I want to find out if I need to give attribution when I use Google Images. I hope to find out more about that when I explore Creative Commons.

All in all, I enjoyed my experience in the sandbox. Once I got the hang of the formatting, it was easy to make a wiki page. I had two frustrating moments: one was when I was trying to make the [toc], and it just wouldn't magically morph into that Table of Contents box on the side of the page. But then I figured out that I needed to closely read the directions and add two brackets on each side. [[toc]]. It worked like a charm! The second problem I had was with spacing some of my images, but I was working on my wiki at 1:30 in the morning, so I think I was a little tired. But now it's all good. Some sleep and a cup of coffee works wonders on my mind.

If I were still teaching high school English, I would have everyone of my students make a wiki page at the beginning of the year as a "get to know you" activity. I would wheel the laptop cart into my room and we could do this in a 90 minute period. If they didn't finish, then they could finish at home on their own computers--or go to the library to finish. Talk about the power of publishing! Rather than turning in a lame "get to know you" worksheet, they could create their own pages and use them to build that sense of community that is so vital in a writing classroom. It almost makes me want to go back to those days. Almost--but not quite.

I want to know how to create an entire wiki space and give access to my teachers so that they can sign up for a library time. The best thing about this class is that it has given me the confidence to just TRY technology and figure it out myself. I also have a great network of fellow librarians that I can ask for help, but whereas before I would have asked them first--now I want to try it first myself. That's huge for me! Technology rocks!!

And now, without further ado...here is my very own wiki!!

See if you can figure out why I named it "Raindrops on Roses..."